THE IMPACT OF QUALITY IMPROVEMENT TRAINING WITHIN A FAMILY RESIDENCY PROGRAM AT A COMMUNITY REFERRAL HOSPITAL IN HAITI

Introduction & Objectives Zanmi lasante (ZL) implemented the second family medicine residency program (FMRP) at a public community referral hospital in Haiti, two years after the earthquake destroyed his capital. The FMRP had to help the residents developing capacity to identify, analyze problems encountered in the setting and work collaboratively to improve quality of health care delivery and patient safety at lower cost to the system. Our objectives are to discuss the effect of the training on the residents quality improvement (QI) competency and to summarize the impact of the projects on the spread of QI at the hospital. Method A yearlong didactic training on continuous quality improvement (CQI) totalizing twenty hours was provided by the heads of the ZL monitoring, evaluation and QI department. The set of QI projects documented through the project description sheet and/or posters were reviewed and are the main sources of data. Result and Conclusion 9 from a total of 33 QI projects launched at the hospital were completed in 2012-2014. 56% of all projects took place in the OB/GYN department. 78% of the family medicine residents held a leadership role in the QI projects. Nurses and physicians accounted respectively for 44% and 20 % of all personnel involved. 67% of the QI projects met the criteria for having a valid problem statement, 83% had a specific and relevant indicator, and 93% had a SMART objective. 100% of them used a team based approach, had a clear identification and description of the process, a clear mechanism to prioritize interventions.